Football: Devine Candidate for Doak Walker Award

DALLAS, TX – Senior running back Noel Devine has been named a candidate for the 2010 Doak Walker Award. The award is presented annually to the nation’s top college running back.

Noel Devine

This year’s candidates include the nation’s leading returning rusher, Dion Lewis from Pitt; Mark Ingram, the 2009 Doak Walker Award finalist and Heisman Trophy recipient; and Ryan Williams who led the ACC in rushing last season and was ranked 3rd nationally.

Semifinalists will be selected on November 10, with the Doak Walter Award National Selection Committee casting votes to determine the finalists, who will be announced on November 22. A second round of voting to determine the recipient will then take place on November 29. The selection committee is comprised of former NFL All-Pro and college All-America running backs, media members and selected special representatives.

The 2010 Doak Walker Award recipient will be announced live on ESPN during The Home Depot ESPNU College Football Awards on Thursday, December 9. The Doak Walker Award Presentation Banquet will take place in February 2011 at the Hilton Anatole Hotel in Dallas, Texas.

The Doak Walker Award is a member of the National College Football Award Association (NCFAA) which was founded in 1997 as a coalition of major collegiate football awards in order to protect, preserve and enhance the integrity, influence and prestige of the game’s predominant awards. It is the only major collegiate award that requires all candidates to be in good academic standing and on schedule to graduate within one year of other students of the same classification.

As a unanimous all-BIG EAST first-team selection by league coaches, Phil Steele, and ESPN.com, Devine spent his junior season leading the team in rushing with 1,465 yards, averaging 6.1 yards per carry. He scored 13 rushing touchdowns, and had a season-high three touchdowns at Auburn. He also surpassed the 1,000 yard rushing mark for the second-straight year. Devine was named West Virginia’s Gator Bowl MVP against Florida State as he registered a game-high 168 yards on 16 carries and a touchdown, and his teammates selected him an “Iron Mountaineer” for his hard work and dedication during the offseason lifting and conditioning program.

The Mountaineers will open their season on Saturday, Sept. 4, when they play host to Coastal Carolina at Mountaineer Field at Milan Puskar Stadium at 3:30 p.m.